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BACK - TO - SCHOOL 1 — Herald Community Newspapers
August 19, 2021
— August 19, 2021
Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
Resetting Expectations
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BTS: Resetting Expectations
A feeding frenzy at Peter’s
New president for MSSN
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Vol. 32 No. 34
AUGUST 19 - 25, 2021
Superblock project gets final approval By JAMES BERNSTEiN jbernstein@liherald.com
The four-decade-long effort to build residential apartments and condominiums on Long Beach’s Superblock has come to a successful end. The Nassau County Industrial Development Agency this week approved the sale of the property by iStar, a Manhattan-based company, to the Engel Burman Group of Uniondale, the final step in an ongoing bureaucratic process that has involved government officials, political figures and residents for 40
years. Engel Burman will build two nine-story condo buildings and a 10-story apartment building on six acres between Riverside and Long Beach boulevards. The site has been largely abandoned for years and was an eyesore for the City of Long Beach. Gary Lewi, a spokesman fo r E n g e l B u r m a n , s a i d groundbreaking for the project may come as early as this fall. “This is an extraordinary chapter in the economic renaissance of a community and a county,” Engel Burman
Courtesy Engel Burman
ThE PlANNEd SUPERBlock project, shown in a rendering, ends 40 years of negotiations and lawsuits and will clean up a longtime Long Beach eyesore. President Jan Burman said. “Through the cooperation of various parties, disciplines and sectors,” he continued, “there has been an unprecedented shared commitment to moving forward on this site.” The $369 million project will include 6,500 square feet of boardwalk-level retail, a restaurant and two levels of
1,100 parking spaces. The sale price of the property was not revealed. “This is a huge project for Long Beach and for the IDA,” agency President Richard Kessel said. Another key step along the way came in April, when the Long Beach City Council approved a settlement that
dismissed a $105 million lawsuit that iStar had filed against the city, which was contingent on the sale of the property and Engel Burman’s collecting a $2.5 million credit that iStar had paid toward building permits. The lawsuit was filed in 2018 after the city revoked a Continued on page 8
Local woman to go for gold at Tokyo Paralympics By JAMES BERNSTEiN jbernstein@liherald.com
L o r a We b s t e r, o f Po i n t Lookout, will try for gold one more time as she heads for the Paralympics in Tokyo on Friday. This will be Webster’s fifth Paralympics since 2004. The 3 4 - ye a r- o l d f u l l - t i m e m o m plays sitting volleyball for Team USA, training daily and traveling to Edmund, Okla., once a month to train with team members. The Paralympics be gin Aug. 24 and continue until Sept. 5. Webster has a prosthetic
leg after a cancerous tumor was found in her left tibia. But little has stopped her over the years. She has three children and is now pregnant with a fourth. She is as excited as ever to compete, but along with winning, there is another thing on her mind: the coronavirus. “It’s very difficult just getting to the Games,” she said on Wednesday. “We have to test twice before we fly out. Then we test every day” at the Games. “This time, it’s all about staying ne g ative for Covid.” She worries less about contracting the virus, she said,
T
his time, it’s all about staying negative for Covid.
loRA WEBSTER Paralympic athlete
than about testing positive for it, which would mean her elimination from competition. Webster prefers not to discuss whether she has been va c c i n at e d , bu t s a i d t h at Japan has strict protocols to deal with Covid, including testing and social distancing. “We took all the precautions,”
she said. “The government of Japan has done everything it can to deal with the issue.” About 20 years ago, Webster began to feel pain in her left knee when she played on two basketball teams, and she went to a doctor. A biopsy revealed the tumor in her tibia. She asked her doctor to restore her health quickly so
she could continue to compete. In 2004, Webster took part in the Paralympic Games in Athens. At succeeding fouryear intervals she has competed in Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro. The American sitting volleyball team won gold in Rio. Webster was named USA Volleyball Sitting Player Continued on page 13